Though I understand its problems, I still enjoyed the visual ride that was Interstellar. Still, the best thing about the movie might have been the TARS and CASE moving monolith robot machines. Here's a behind the scenes clip that shows how the practical effects of TARS and CASE were made and how they were controlled and moved and given life by puppeteers.

Most contemporary American critics of technology—from Jaron Lanier to Andrew Keen to Sherry Turkle—fall into the cultural-romantic or conservative camps. They bemoan the arrogant thrust of technological thinking as it clashes with human traditions and fret over what an ethos of permanent disruption means for the configuration of the liberal self or the survival of its landmark institutions, from universities to newspapers.﻿

BOOK REVIEWEDThe Glass Cage: Automation and Us, by Nicholas Carr, W. W. Norton, $26.95 What does it mean to be a technology critic in today’s America? And what can technology criticism accomplish? The first question... Read More »

Co-authors Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli talk about their book Becoming Steve Jobs. The book sheds new light on the colorful and compelling figure who became one of the most famous CEOs in history. Moderated by John Gruber of Daring Fireball. ﻿

Co-authors Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli talk about their book Becoming Steve Jobs. The book sheds new light on the colorful and compelling figure who became one of the most famous CEOs in history. Moderated by John Gruber of Daring Fireball. Becoming Steve Jobs is available on iBooks.

Analysis of 20 years of satellite data has revealed the total amount of vegetation globally has increased by almost 4 billion tonnes of carbon since 2003. This is despite ongoing large-scale deforestation in the tropics.﻿